Pictures and story from WUSA9.com:
Virginia Dominion officials said they have restored power to thousands of Northern Virginia customers after a ladder truck struck a power line at a Fairfax County fire house Wednesday morning.
Le Ha Anderson, spokesperson for Virginia Dominion Power, said the emergency vehicle hit a transmission line off Ox Road and around 8:45 a.m.
Officials said the contact between the ladder truck and the power line caused a small fire in an electrical panel inside the fire station.
One firefighter received non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Anderson said crews worked to reroute power in order to get customers back on line as soon as possible. Power was restored shortly before 10:30 a.m.
Metro officials told 9NEWS NOW the outage affected the King Street, Van Dorn, and Springfield Metro stations, where power has since been restored.
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Correct me if i’m wrong, but didn’t this happen before at another firehouse?
Second incident in two years! Need a better apparatus Technician test. Guess you can put anybody behind the wheel.
Someone ain’t gonna live that down for a long while.
There is no excuse for this to happen. The individual should be terminated. I spent most of my career on truck companies and Rule #1 is to look for electrical wires when putting up the aerial.
Didn’t this same thing happen about a year or so ago to a ladder truck in Fairfax?
Seriously? The firehouse has been there for two years and the wires a lot longer than that…how did this happen? It wasn’t that long ago that I went through FF1 as a volunteer in FXCO and checking for wires overhead when raising a ladder was the FIRST thing you do. I am just amazed that no one was killed.
At least it wasn’t T10 this time….
Thank GOD there wasn’t a LODD as a result of this. Any reason this was even considered a good idea?
Didn’t Fairfax County burn the tip off of a ladder a couple of years ago doing the same thing?
These guys are awesome. I wish I worked for a county. Then I could be like them.
I think Fairfax did this a few years ago.
/sarcasm
Wow. You couldn’t have aimed any better. That ladder looks as if it was purposely directed at those lines. I know that’s not the case, but seriously… if that technician was assigned to that house for some time how can this accident be in any way justified or excused? A lot of people could have died.
I say complain now as all of you do until it is a fire at your house and then you are still complaining because it took them so long to get there FFX county Fire and Rescue employees and Volunteers and great i work with them somewhat in the medical feild and all of them are great Give em a break you rich classy ppl and get a life ONATE SOME MONEY TO YOUR LOCAL FIR AND RESCUE INSTEAD of complaining over something like this i AM FROM UP cULPEPER WAY YOU SHOULD BE GREATFUL FOR THE RESPONSE TIMES YOU ALL GET move in the woods and then see how good of response you get
Maybe you’ll should get some of them thar helicopter balls put on them thar E-lectrical wires. Thens you’ll could seez’m better.
Maybe they was tryin to recharge them bat-trees on the truck.
I’m just happy none of them thar firefighters weren’t toasted. Hell I’ve seen them smokin squirrels that gots fried on them wires, it ain’t purdy, but they is tasty.
Whoa there Steven Dodson.
Take a deep breath, punctuation is your friend. Then you can start on punctuation and capitalization.
I’m still trying to catch my breath after reading the entire “sentence”.
As for donating, I do twice a year, it’s called property taxes here in Michigan. Well, not really donating, because if I don’t the sheriff will stop by with new locks, but you get the idea.
Now, that we have those 2 items out of the way, why would anybody want to donate hard earned money to a department that has apparently damaged 2 aerials within the last couple years because they can’t follow the most important, the numero uno rule when putting a ladder–ground or hydraulic–in the air?
PS Maybe the response times are a result of shortage of equipment because it keeps getting stuck in power lines?
Hey Steve,
You should have stayed in school and received an education in English and grammar. XOXOXO
I’m going to donate money for an Adult Literacy Program in Culpeper, VA.
hey Steve Dodson. before responding to something please try to gather your thoughts, write complete sentences,include proper punctuation. And just to let you know……most of the people making comments here are Firemen. Not some hillbilly from Culpepper. So go back out to the barn and slop the hogs.
Pretty damn stupid sorry to say but as you can see that ladder was extended a long ways to hit those powerlines!!! Just watch the video on Dave’s other link from the Channel 9 report. You have officers from this department walking around a firehouse in safety vests, WTF????????? Is that what the fire service is coming to, walking around an incident at our own facility in safety vests????
They didn’t recognize the wires because the wires weren’t wearing a vest. lol
why is there a ladder truck in an area with no tall buildings with a tanker truck serving an area with no city water?
Hey guys- let’s remember that some of our brothers were hurt during this accident. Don’t be so quick to judge or slam the persons involved in this accident, especially when hiding behind a fake or anonymous screen names. I didn’t see anyone slamming the two Loudoun FF’s who were nearly hurt last week after falling through a floor. Accidents happen- and sometimes more than once! Let’s learn from this and hope for a speedy and full recovery from all who were injured.
Anonymous, I just noticed the vests! Hilarious! Don’t get me wrong, I love working for this county (mainly because i’m at a good house in a battalion that catches a good amount of work) but seriously guys – vests at a county firehouse? This is the kind of stuff that makes us the subject of ridicule. Still glad nobody was seriously injured.
I thought fairfax county fire was the best of the best of the best. Hmmmm guess not. Two ladders into wires. Either they need vision testing or they need to hire additional safety officers to respond for apparatus checks. Maybe send a chief and batt chief in vests. That would solve it all.
First, Glad that the injured personnel are going to be ok. Now all you salty dogs and crack apparatus drivers from the surrounding jurisdictions can flame Fairfax County Fire for this incident,but the bottom line is it could happen to anyone of us at any time. Do you really think this is the first time this has happened? Let’s use this as a learning experience to teach new Ladder company drivers about keeping aware of what is overhead when you put the stick or the bucket up.I am not saying that this should be swept under the carpet or treated like a bastard step child, let’s keep our eyes open in the future.
Steve, Do a little research and pratice Grammer and your comments may be more appreciated,.
Hey Gene,
Are you related to Steve. You don’t have a clue, do you? Stay in the sticks or read up on the duties of truck companies.
I can see a new SOP being developed. No raising the stick within 500 feet of any electrical lines. Morons. They did look silly wearing their vests, didn’t they! What has happened to this once good fire department?
Joe, this was not an accident. This was carelessness, plain and simple.
I would hazard a guess that aerial checks like this happen hundreds maybe thousands of times a week across the country, yet we don’t hear of them getting caught in power lines very often, even at fires.
Maybe it is a lack of training, but it is also a HUGE lack of common sense, since we all learn in basic firefighting school to always, always, always look up before throwing ground ladders. The same goes for a hydraulic ladder.
Then if we couple this with the fact that this is the second time in a year or two, something is wrong with the training and supervision.
Yes, we are all thankful no one was seriously hurt, but this is was no accident.
As for the FF’s falling through the floor, yes crap happens in fires. This wasn’t an emergency scene with victims hanging out windows while the building was fully involved. This was just plain carelessness.
The incident report stated that the Technician was texting while operating the aerial. A secondary offense in the State of Virginia. The personnel wearing the safety vests were charged with Class 6 Felonies for impersonating a firefighter.
Why is the Fairfax FRD command not saying anything? Why was the medical hot line not setup with Dr. Stewarts daily brief.
HHHMMMMMM, typical great leadership from FRD……save us BIG EYE
Fire the driver and shift Captain……..LOSERS
A question for all fire dogs. Do we train and work with our equipment so much that we get too comfortable? Do we start to skip the traffic vest, safety glasses or seatbelt? I wonder if this is the case. Because we can face and overcome dangerous situations doesn’t mean we should place ourselves in them. I am glad no one was seriously injured. Let’s consistently remind ourselves to watch for all hazards including electrical wires. Everybody goes home shouldn’t be a cliche but a philosophy to live by.